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Lorna Meaden | Episode 260
Lorna Meaden grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago. She received a B.A. from Fort Lewis College in 1994, and an MFA in ceramics from Ohio University 2005. She has been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, and at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. Her work is represented my several national galleries. She has taught numerous workshops nationally and internationally, in addition to being featured as a demonstrator and lecturer at the National Council on Education in Ceramic Arts, and Utilitarian Clay V: Celebrate the Object. Lorna is currently a studio potter in Durango, CO.
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You have been doing this for awhile, how do you go about setting prices?
I really try to keep my prices right in the same range as other people. I try to keep it right in the middle, although I have been blamed for under pricing my work a lot of times by other potters. I do have this feeling that I don’t want someone not to be able to afford a cup. I want people to be able to buy my work so I have a hard time raising my prices.
How do you advertise your work?
Well I’ve gotten really into the Instagram thing. So that’s new for me. I advertise a couple of different ways. I have a holiday sale that is in my own studio in Durango every year and that has turned into a really big event that’s been really fun. For that I will do social media, Facebook invitations, I send out cards, I send out emails and of course, I think I have 6 galleries right now that show my work. I will have some advertising through them as well.
Do you sell from your website?
I had my first online sale recently. All I did was twenty cups and I put them up for just three days. I did a few little ads on Instagram saying the day it’s going to happen coming up. I showed a couple of images of the work that was going to be on there and then had the sale and it went really well. That was a practice run for the online holiday sale I am going to have this year.
Do you feel that a gallery earns their fifty percent?
A good gallery does, yes.
What are your Instagram practices to make your page liked and followed?
That is a hard one for me to answer. I really don’t know. I do have a lot of followers and I have gotten into it but I have heard other people talk about it and I think, Oh I never do that. All these different ideas people have where you have to post at least once a day, or at least twice a week, I don’t do any of that. I try not to post too many personal pictures on there but I don’t really have a formula.
If a genie were to grant you three wishes what would they be?
1)I would have to think about it but I was going to wish Advancer shelves worked really well in a soda kiln. That’s like ceramic nerd to the max, right? 2)I would be so afraid to wish for it but to not have to worry about money. That could be a good one. 3) I think to have more time. Sometimes I think 40 more years of making pots might not be enough time. So time, money and Advancer shelves.
Book Recommendation
A Potter’s Workbook by Clary Illian
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